Predators tie for wild card with win against Canadiens

MONTREAL -- The Nashville Predators moved into a tie for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Filip Forsberg had two goals and an assist for Nashville (35-26-8), which scored four goals in the second period and won its third straight game. The Predators are tied with the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks, one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild.
"Obviously we're going to need every point that we can get with the way the other teams are playing as well," Forsberg said. "The second period was really good. I thought the first was good too. We didn't get rewarded, but we stuck with it."
WATCH: [All Predators vs. Canadiens highlights]
Forsberg tied Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber for second on the Predators goals list with 166. They were teammates with Nashville from 2012-13 to 2015-16.
"It's cool," Forsberg said. "It's obviously a little special doing it when you're playing against him too. He's obviously one of those guys that you really looked up to coming in as a young guy in Nashville, and to try to take as much advice as you could from a player like that."

Juuse Saros made 32 saves after getting consecutive shutouts against the Dallas Stars. His shutout streak ended at 181:06 when Artturi Lehkonen pulled Montreal within 4-1 at 2:45 of the third period.
"It's a fun fact, but I think we played a really solid game today again, and once again, great defense," Saros said.
Lukas Vejdemo scored his first NHL goal, and Carey Price made 32 saves for Montreal (31-31-9), which has lost three straight and is 4-8-2 in its past 14 games. The Canadiens are 10 points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division and 10 points behind the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.

"Just as professionals, you know, we've got to be better than that," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. "It's extremely disappointing, obviously, and we felt like we left our goaltender out to dry. And a second period like that, it cost us the game. We knew how desperate they were going to be. They played well, but at the same time you have to have expectations of yourself to be better."
Ryan Johansen gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 51 seconds of the second.

Calle Jarnkrok made it 2-0 from the right circle at 2:57 off a face-off win by Predators forward Kyle Turris.
Forsberg made it 3-0 on the power play at 8:18. He took a pass from Roman Josi and scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle to become the first player in Nashville history with six 20-goal seasons.
Josi also assisted on Forsberg's goal at 16:00. The defenseman redirected Ryan Ellis' pass in the slot to Forsberg, who scored on a low shot from the right side to make it 4-0.
Vejdemo cut it to 4-2 at 8:40 of the third off Dale Weise's pass from below the goal line.
"Of course it's my first goal so it's fun to score, but I'd rather take a win," the rookie forward said after his seventh NHL game. "We've lost three in a row now, so that's no fun."

They said it

"I really liked our mental game tonight. I think we really came into this game ready to play, ready to play the right way. I thought we had a very good first period. We didn't get rewarded for the way that we played. We talked about staying with it, managing the puck, playing the game the right way in the second, and we got rewarded for it." -- Predators coach John Hynes
"They have depth throughout their lineup for sure. I don't think we sorted it out all that great. And we were probably a little bit loose in our coverage, and we allowed them to make a lot of plays." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher

Need to know

Saros' shutout streak is the second-longest in Predators history (Dan Ellis, 233:39, 2007-08). … David Legwand holds the Nashville goals record with 210. … Vejdemo was assigned to Laval of the American Hockey League after the game. … Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar (upper body) missed his third straight game and is out indefinitely.

What's next

Predators: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TSN4, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, MSG-B, NHL.TV)